please comment a thousand and one times on this it's long and i'm thirsty
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It's been a very, very long time since he's had a proper shower, but now that he's finally had one, he felt crisper than he has in years.
Sure, he struggled with the foreign nobs and advanced features at first, but a shower was a shower no matter what planet you were on, and he ended up smelling fresh and flowery either way. His hair was dried and straightened in no time with their fancy advanced tools, he felt exfoliated, his skin was softer than it's been since he was a child, and he looked like he was literally glowing. He admired the new and improved Mitch Grassi in the steamy bathroom mirror for at least twenty minutes before Avi yelled at him irritatedly to move it the fuck along, because damn, he was starting to feel as beautiful as everyone was telling him he was.
Their break in paradise was short lived, because Kevin insisted they had a schedule to keep to, and they were already way behind. So Mitch walked along the streets of Nalaheria feeling rejuvenated with a new spring in his step, ready to learn and train and be everything the universe needed.
It was going to be a good day.
The sun was beating down high in the sky, but the misty breeze was chilly enough to send goosebumps racing down Mitch's cloaked body. It smelled like rain and freshly cut grass around the outskirts of the city, and he couldn't fight off the tiny smile on his lips as they neared the ship bay. Gravel crunched under their feet as they walked, and if Mitch didn't already know he wanted to live here when this was all over, this moment right here would be enough to make up his mind.
Nalaheria's ship bay was the biggest Mitch had seen yet -- the planet was a very popular vacation destination, for obvious reasons, and the place was bustling with travelers yesterday. Which is why, when they entered the gates to the open-roofed bay, an odd feeling settled over him when they found the two acre lot completely empty. No ships, no travelers... just a whole lot of gravel and empty space.
"That's... odd," Kirstin said distantly as she stepped forward cautiously, gravel crunching underneath her foot; which was odd enough, considering it was so loud yesterday that he could barely even hear himself think. She squinted her eyes, and the hairs on Mitch's neck raised when he followed her gaze to the single ship in the middle of the lot. Their ship. Exactly where they left it, untouched, and the only one within an entire acre.
"More than odd," Avi said coldly, glancing around himself nervously as he took a cautious step towards his ship. "Something is very, very wrong."
Kirstin and Kevin shared a panicked look, but Mitch just wrapped his arms around himself in fear. It was just a coincidence, right? This had nothing to do with his dream, or Scott, or... "Was there an evacuation?" His voice was weak and feeble, memories of whispered words and deep chuckles raking against his brain uncomfortably. "I mean... that's the only explanation, right?"
"If there was, we should've heard about it," Avi said shortly, jerking his head forward as a signal for them to follow as he took long strides towards their ship. "Come on. We need to get out of here. Now."
A thick lump of fear formed in Mitch's throat the closer they got to the center of the lot, and he swallowed around it with calm breaths. Wasn't it a bit idiotic to go straight to their ship when something weird was obviously happening? He didn't feel Scott, but that didn't mean he wasn't there, right? Were his dreams real? Was he actually on his way, and Mitch accidentally gave away their position, and...
He felt that itch in his brain, stronger than he can ever remember feeling it before, and he whipped his head around just in time to see a mirage twinkle right next to him. He opened his mouth to shout, to scream, to whisper at them to stop, watch out, because something was there and he didn't know what it was, but before he could get anything out the mirage twinkled again. It suddenly looked like plates of shiny glass moving around in the sky, and before he could even register it, they were shifting and twinkling away in a haze of blue light, and there was a fucking imperial soldier there, standing proudly in his red uniform with his gun trained right at the group.
Mitch yelped in surprise, and the group came to a dead stop when even more mirages shifted around them, encircling them in a wide perimeter, their mirrors shifting away and revealing a dozen more soldiers with their guns raised, and the crew all whipped their heads around frantically to try to keep sight of them all. Invisibility? That was possible here? Was technology that advanced? His head was aching, his heart was pounding, he needed to leave because if these soldiers were here, then Scott couldn't be far behind. But they were trapped, and he felt doomed.
The soldiers shouted something at them in Ækhi, and Mitch's hands started trembling. "We should've known it was a trap," Avi spat, and the four stood back to back by instinct. "How did they know?"
Mitch felt nothing but fear and guilt swarm in every cell of his body, and he pushed back against his friends while he stared at the soldiers with eyes full of tears. He should've known, he should've known it wasn't a dream, it was all too real to be a dream and now Scott was going to get him and -
"Kirstin," Kevin said calmly, his flat voice not doing anything to soothe Mitch's anxieties like it usually did. "Can you take them all on?"
"Not by myself," she said shortly, hands crinkling in that way Mitch could never master, and he could feel the dense energy she was wielding between her fingers. "But with Mitch... maybe."
His heart stopped. "Me?!" He didn't even know how to use his powers yet! How the hell did she expect him to take out twelve armed soldiers?!
"You have my permission to get angry," she whispered, practically reading his mind. But he knew that he couldn't, because he felt nothing but fear overriding the connection he held with his powers. He was quivering, and his shaky hands refused to crumple in the position Kirstin was using, and he just felt like the end of the universe was upon him.
And that was when he felt it.
The sensation of being dipped into warm water, the tingles that jolted across his skin, the tug of energy that led him to somewhere... "He's here," Mitch whimpered, his gaze following the magnetic cord that reached out to the dazzling horizon. A familiar fleet of imperial ships glimmered in the sunlight as they raced across the sky at an incredible speed, and the undeniable presence of Scott just got more and more intense. An ambush. It was a fucking ambush. "How do we get ourselves out of this one?"
"We don't," Avi snapped, turning towards the horizon, and Mitch could see a film of panic over his intense eyes. "We're boned."
"No, we're not," Kirstin snapped right back, letting her hands drop to her side, and Mitch felt the energy between her fingers dissipate. He paled -- was Scott so strong that she wasn't even going to put up a fight? Were they that screwed? "Kevin, send a transmission to Ben. Call in all troops in Nalaheria to the bay."
"On it," he said calmly, and Mitch's shoulders shook as Scott got closer, the sensation of purple and red beginning to weave its way into his soul. He forced all of his energy to converge in his brain, to create the strongest mental shield he could manage like Kirstin taught him to, and the colorful sensation calmed for just a few moments.
He glanced over to Avi to see him staring at Mitch with apologetic eyes, and flashbacks of last night's conversation assaulted mind. He won't get anywhere near you. I promise you. He will not take you from us.
"You can't let him, Avi," he whimpered desperately, knees shaking as the dizzying presence of Scott got closer and closer. "Y-You can't let him take me, you promised, I can't -"
"Shh, Mitch," Kirstin said soothingly when Avi winced, and he could feel the heavy presence of her persuasive energy trying to penetrate his mental shields, doing everything it could to calm him down. It didn't work -- he just felt more panicked, and almost betrayed. "It's okay. Just hide behind KO, alright? We can drag this out until the troops get here, and you'll be safe. Sound good?"
He nodded and swallowed fearfully to wet the dryness of his throat, cowering behind Kevin like a child. His stomach turned violently when the ships got so close that he could hear the whir of their engines, and he felt like vomiting when the guards around them shifted away into a semicircle to make way for the fleet. Scott felt so present, he could feel his consciousness brushing against Mitch's, just barely constrained by the weak mental shields that Mitch was doing everything in his power to keep intact.
He pulled his hood higher around his head when the ship descended towards the bay, and Mitch finally got a good look at how big it was. It was a quarter the size of the lot, and while the two ships behind it were half as big, they still shadowed over Avi's ship. And then their landing gear popped out, and Mitch's heart started palpitating as it sunk down into the gravel before them, the engines whirring down just enough for him to hear how heavy his breathing had become. He slapped a hand over his mouth to shut himself up -- he could feel Scott, he was right there, on the inside side of that ship, his presence was so strong and that magnetic pull between them was stronger than ever. The tears burning at his eyes were threatening to fall, all he could even focus on was torture devices and rape and his powers totally betraying him, making him submit to Scott as if he actually wanted to.
He thought his mental shields were actually pretty good, until the ramp extended from the ship, and there was no material filter between him and Scott. A gasp of air whooshed from his lungs, and his next inhale was shaky -- he was here. There was absolutely no denying it. He was here, and Mitch was fighting every cell in his body that begged to close the distance between them. His shields were wavering, and the control over his powers was getting weaker, like they had a mind of their own.
Soldiers donned in a crisp purple uniform trailed out on either side of the wide ramp, wielding some kind of rifle that Mitch never wanted to have trained on him. They looked dangerous, like they were highly trained in the art of slaughtering, and he only felt more afraid when they reached the end of the ramp and span to face each other, standing at attention in perfect sync. Their weapons were pressed high to their chest, like they were ready to shoot at a moment's notice, like they were expecting to.
And then Mitch peeked over Kevin's shoulder and his gaze trailed up to the top of the ramp, and his energy coiled in his stomach when black combat boots stepped into his vision. He held his breath and peeked back away behind Kevin. He was there. Scott was right there, in front of him, and Mitch was already intimidated by his fucking shoes. How could he bear to look him in the eyes? Would he cry, or crumble in fear? Oh god, was he about to piss himself?
His steps were slow and seemed to echo around the lot as he trailed down the ramp, making Mitch's knees quiver. He was taking his damn sweet time, because he knew everyone would wait for him, he knew he was the most powerful man in the entire universe, he knew his presence alone was making Mitch quiver. He shifted his gaze to ground when he felt Scott's power reach out and barely brush across his mind, teasing how how much stronger he was than Mitch, how he could break through those shields whenever he wanted, how he could completely overpower Mitch with his intense energy. He only shivered more, and he barely felt relieved when the presence backed away.
And then the steps stopped, and the crew was left in silence for a very, very long time, before a familiar baritone voice cut through the tense silence like a knife. "You've caused quite a bit of trouble for me, Kirstin."
Mitch bit his lip and swallowed thickly at the sound of his smooth voice. It was crisper in person, so commanding, so sure of itself and a hell of a lot sexier than in his dreams.
"I'm glad," Kirstin spat angrily, but Mitch could hear the waver in her voice and he pitied what hell she must be enduring right now.
Scott laughed through his nose, like he was amused, and the sound shook Mitch's very soul. He wanted to squeeze his eyes shut, he wanted to look up, he wanted to run away, he wanted to leap into his arms. That familiar war was raging inside his head again, and he didn't know what to do to stop it.
"I see you brought me my apprentice," he said smoothly, and Mitch could feel him staring directly through Kevin, like the hiding spot was completely useless, because it was. "Thank you. I appreciate it greatly."
"Fuck off," Avi spat, and there was no fear in his voice -- only anger. "You're not getting him."
Scott's chuckle was low and confident, and Mitch felt his soul vibrate again. "I beg to differ," he said smoothly, and Mitch could hear his foot crunch on the gravel as he stepped all the way down the ramp. "Come out here, little one. Let me see you."
Him. Mitch. He was talking to Mitch. He'd noticed him, of course, but now he was addressing him, and his body didn't know what to do.
"Mitch, no!" Kirstin's voice was frail, and he could practically feel her clenching her fists. "He won't!"
"Nonsense," Scott argued in disbelief, his tone sure and almost teasing. "Mitchell, obey me. Step out where I can see you."
The pull of his voice was so strong, and the weight of his words were so commanding that Mitch was obeying before he even realized it. His energy tugged him out of his hiding spot behind Kevin with meek steps, and he kept his gaze locked on the ground away from Scott.
Run away.
When Scott's gaze scanned over his body and a deep chuckle rumbled from him, every fiber of Mitch's being begged him to look up, to meet that intense gaze, like it was entwined in his DNA to submit. "My oh my. You turned out to be quite lovely, didn't you?"
He needed to know. He needed to see, he needed to finally know what Scott looked like, he needed to know who his soulmate truly was. His head only started to peek up when Kevin made a tiny panicked noise, and his head froze in a moment of clarity. "Mitch, don't," he whispered, and in the corner of his eye he could see the android's hand twitching at his side, like he wanted to reach out and stop him, but his fear of the Emperor held him back. "Don't give in."
Scott had other plans. "Look at me when I speak to you, my prodigy," Scott cooed commandingly, his voice as sweet and thick as honey and brushing against every nook and cranny of Mitch's mental shields in a pleasing way that left him boneless.
Now he realized why they called him The Commander. His voice was so strong, his words were so sure, he knew what he wanted and he knew he was going to get it. And he did -- Mitch ignored the protests of his crew mates, and trailed his gaze up the gravel, up the ramp, up to his boots, up to him.
His breath escaped him in one quick gasp, and he struggled to remember how to breathe when he made eye contact. This was Scott. This was The Commander. This was the ruler of the universe, and Mitch's literal soulmate.
His posture held one of pure command, his shoulders broad and his hands clasped behind his back, like he owned the ground he was standing on, which he did. He was tall, much taller than Mitch and the soldiers around him, and his strong jaw was held high confidently. He wore a full length black leather jacket that was just short of his boots, unbuckled and revealing his black ripped jeans and buttoned shirt underneath. And his face...
His skin was strikingly pale, just like Candice's, and so was his hair. The sides of his head were shaved, and his hair was wavy and seemed to defy gravity itself as it stuck up in a fluffy quiff. The black designs on his face only served to highlight his sharp features even more, and both of his ears were pierced with black studs that brought his whole intimidating look together. His icy blue eyes were intense and smudged with black, and his dream did not do them justice -- they were deep, and he felt like he could sense every ounce of his red and purple soul through those eyes, and he had a hard time breaking their sinful eye contact, so he didn't.
If someone asked Mitch to imagine what the ruler of the universe looked like, then he couldn't even fathom picturing anyone but this.
He smirked as his consciousness brushed up against Mitch's rapidly crumbling mental shields again, and he could barely even find the will the keep them up. But it didn't even matter if he tried, because Scott pushed forward with his energy, slicing through Mitch's weak barrier, and he was just overwhelmed by Scott, by his intoxicating power, by his dark soul, by the vibration of his energy that completely encompassed Mitch. Their consciousnesses merged, just like it did the first time he felt him, and he could suddenly feel every breath in his lungs and every incoherent murmur of his thoughts, hear the same wind in the distance that Mitch did but with his ears, see himself in his mind's eye staring up at the Commander with shiny doe eyes, and the only emotion he could feel in Scott's body was satisfaction.
He pulled back into his own mind with a quiet gasp, and he struggled to stay upright on his wobbly knees. And then the Commander's smirk was deepening darkly as he tilted his head down, and one of his hands was reaching forward, and he was beckoning Mitch closer with a blackened index finger. "Come here, my pretty little thing. Be by your master's side."
He knew there was nothing else he would've done, nothing he wanted to do more than to obey, but he still felt like he was stuck in a trance when he stepped forward slowly and surely, like time was stopped around him. He distantly heard his crew yelling at him to stop, don't do this, he barely even noticed Scott's soldiers readying their weapons to silence them, and he wished he missed the look of pure betrayal on Avi's face he felt through Scott's eyes.
With every step, he knew he was trapping himself, but he didn't care. This was his own will, his own volition, his own decision to hand his mind and body to Scott. There was no running now -- if the Emperor decided Mitch was to be his little prisoner, his puppet, his apprentice, then so be it. It wasn't his choice, and he wasn't going to fight what was meant to be anymore. He was finally submitting to Scott.
When he was close enough to touch, his breaths felt heavy and labored, all the power in his body pulsing intensely with each heartbeat. It made him dizzy, he felt so powerful, he felt high and all he knew he needed to do was get closer.
"You're such a beauty," Scott hummed as Mitch stepped so close that their toes were practically touching. He reached his hand up, and Mitch could feel the infinitely dense energy he wielded in his hands. When he cupped Mitch's cheek, a pleasant vibration ran across his skin where they touched, and he felt like he wanted to purr. "I can't wait to claim you."
He stroked Mitch's cheek with his thumb lovingly, and all he could do was stare, and admire, and wish that he'd stopped running sooner. He was wrong about his destiny. He was very, very wrong. His destiny belonged with Scott, just like he'd said, to follow his orders and submit under his unyielding command. If Scott was the villain here, then fuck, so was Mitch. There would be no revolution. Mitch was not their hero. He was their destruction.
"Incredible," Scott hummed interestedly as he assaulted Mitch's mind, and the only thing he could even focus on was how badly he needed those dark lips to come just a little bit closer, to take what was his, what he owned. "I don't even need to break you, do I? You know who you belong to."
He wanted to nod, but he knew he didn't have to. Scott could feel his every emotion, his every want, his every thought that ran rampant in his subconscious. When he brushed his thumb down Mitch's lower lip, they parted slightly, and he could feel Scott's warm breath against the wetness of his lip. Closer. He needed to be closer. And he was going to get what he wanted, it seemed, as Scott scanned his face while his eyes darkened, his own lips parting while he leaned down to tease his warm breath over Mitch's wanting lips, nose brushing against his intimately.
"Mitch, you can't do this! You have to resist!"
The voice was distant in his ears, but it wasn't to Scott, and his jaw clenched in anger when he barely shifted his head towards the crew. Mitch wanted to whine, to reach up and caress that beautiful jaw and make him look back at Mitch, to bring their lips together and feel that buzz of energy in his whole body. He pushed outwards with his energy, and when his consciousness merged with Scott's more intensely, he almost moaned when he felt that same obsessive need gripping at the Commander. He just had more control over his powers and his wants, and Mitch envied his willpower.
"I wasn't fooling around when I said you've caused me a lot of trouble, Kirstie," he said lowly, and all Mitch could focus on was how his Adam's apple bobbed in his throat when he spoke. "More than you're worth."
Closer. He needed to be closer, in every way that he could, by their bodies, their minds, their eyes, their souls. He wanted to feel Scott in ways he's never wanted to feel anyone before.
"Mitch..."
Even in his delirious trance, the low rumble of Avi's pained voice startled him. It was the first time he's heard his name fall from his smug lips, and the first time he's heard betrayal instead of a sarcastic tone. Not kid. Not kiddo. Mitch. A funny feeling settled in his stomach.
But then he felt that overwhelming itch in his brain, stronger than it's ever been, seemingly amplified by Scott's empowering presence. His head jerked over to the horizon by instinct, where he saw a fleet of what looked like fighter jets glimmering in the cool light, donning green banners he couldn't recognize.
Scott followed his gaze, and sighed deeply as his hand disappointingly dropped from Mitch's face. "Always in the way," he murmured, eyebrows furrowing as he squinted against the light. "Always."
Mitch's heart stopped. The rebellion. Once his allies, and now his enemies, in a matter of minutes. He's never seen any other members like this, he's never seen the banner, never felt their strength, and now he wished he didn't have to.
The jets were much faster than Scott's fleet, and Mitch could barely even keep track of them when they zoomed past and unloaded their missiles onto Scott's ship, seemingly uncaring for Mitch's safety. Fear gripped at his throat and he got ready to duck, but the Commander just held up his thumb and two fingers lazily, and instead of summoning a force field like Mitch was expecting, every single one of the tiny missiles stopped dead in their tracks, and the dense energy emanating from Scott made him dizzy. He swept his wrist to the side, and the missiles followed -- they flung to the side, where they kept traveling and crashed into a mountainside in the distance.
A shudder ripped through his body when he truly realized Scott's power. He remembered Kirstin's struggles with a simple forcefield against bullets -- he's certainly picked the right side of this war, it seemed, because fighting anything as powerful as Scott seemed impossible now. He was grateful to soon have a teacher like Scott. Kirstin seemed useless now.
He barked at one of his guards in Ækhi, and his dialect sounded Russian to Mitch, and holy shit was it sexy. He didn't know what he said, but he knew what he meant by the connection in their minds -- Get him out of here. Take him to his chambers, now. Before Mitch could even register it, there were hands on his biceps, and the high guards were dragging him away from Scott, away from where he needed to be. Closer. Closer. He struggled and got ready to scream the farther away they dragged him, he needed to be closer, but Scott met his eyes so intensely that his mouth stayed glued shut. "Obey me," he barked seriously, and suddenly the need to submit outweighed his need to be near Scott.
"Yes, Commander," he said instinctively, voice meek and timid, and he stopped struggling when the guards pushed him along to the left of the flanking ships. His heart ached the farther he got from Scott, his presence barely fading away while he barked more orders at his soldiers.
His crew -- ex crew -- yells at him to stop, to think this through, to run away and be saved by the rebellion, because they were here now and they could escape. But Scott's army raised their weapons and silenced them, and Mitch kept on stepping obediently. He didn't want to be saved anymore. He didn't need saving.
As they guided him up the ramp of the ship, he barely caught sight of ground troops wearing green armor run into the bay and shoot down the soldiers surrounding the crew, before he was up in the ship and his vision was blocked by a large guard in a purple uniform. He frisked Mitch, and he let it happen obediently, Scott's angry presence overwhelming his every thought. They found the gun in the waistband of his pants under his cloak, and they confiscated it with ease, Avi's voice echoing hauntingly in his mind.
You'll need to defend yourself.
Did he, though? Not anymore, it seemed, as they took off with ease.
Run away to me.
The connection he felt with Scott weakened the higher they got.
The powers you hold are special, Mitch. We need you.
He gasped quickly as the magnetic pull he felt faded away, and he was left to stare up at the imperial guards with his stomach twisting in regret.
Be my apprentice.
Stop fighting.
Don't be a victim to your own powers.
He'd failed.
☆
:) :) :)